Danone Agrees to Buy U.S. Organic Baby-Food Maker Happy Family

May 13 (Bloomberg) -- Danone, owner of the Evian water and
Activia yogurt brands, agreed to buy Happy Family, a U.S. maker
of organic baby-food, to strengthen its fast-growing infant-nutrition division.

Danone will acquire more than 90 percent of the New York-based company, according to a statement today. The transaction
is subject to the approval of the relevant authorities and is
expected to be finalized in the next few months, the Paris-based
company said. The companies didn’t disclose a price.

Danone reported first-quarter sales growth that beat
estimates last month, driven by baby-nutrition sales. The
company got more than 20 percent of its total revenue from the
division last year.

“We plan to step up the development of Happy Family and
its brands,” Felix Martin Garcia, executive vice-president of
the Danone Baby Nutrition division, said in the statement.

Happy Family, which was founded in 2006, has more than a 4
percent share of the U.S. baby-food market, according to the
statement. The company, which specializes in organic products,
generates gross sales of more than $60 million with products
including brown rice baby cereal and breakfast smoothies, Danone
said.